GIANTS Eritrea continued their magical performance at the 2018 African Continental Road Championship on Thursday in Kigali, winning a total seven medals including four gold medals in Individual Time Trial (ITT) races.

Eritreans claimed all the main four honors of the day; gold in elite men, gold in elite women, gold in junior men and gold in junior women’s category.

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka’s Debesay Mekseb, 26, bagged gold in elite men’s Individual Time to win it for a second time after the 2015 victory. Only compatriot Daniel Teklehaimanot has won this highly rated accolade more times (4) in that category than Debesay.

Africa’s newly ranked top cyclist Joseph Areruya of Rwanda was the star of the day, finishing third in elite men’s TTT to clinch bronze and outshining youngsters to win gold in Under-23 riders category. Former Tour du Rwanda champion Jean Bosco Nsengimana settled for silver in elites.

In elite women’s ITT, Eritrea international DEBESAY Mosana was the gold medalist after using 1 hour, 4 minutes, 58 seconds and 99 microseconds to cover the 40km distance. Ethiopian duo of AMHA Selam and GEBRU Eyeru Tesfoam won silver and bronze medals respectively.

After Wednesday’s Team Time Trial (TTT) and Individual Time Trial races on Thursday, riders will have a day off on Friday before returning to action on Saturday with road race in junior categories and elite women. The championship will conclude on Sunday with elite men’s road race.